s.hasan546

I said it's stupid as a general statement. Your situation doesn't work for everyone. & def. not in all areas. For $142k you could barely buy a trailer park home in LI, NY. Depending on your area rent does not even come close to a mortgage + insurance + maintenance costs.

Tell me what you'll do if you lose your job before your house is paid off in those 10 years

Buying a house as early as possible isn't the best option for many people. People need to realize owning a home is a privilege. Not a necessity, & that many times buying the worse financial decision.

People act like oh if you can't afford it or don't like it "just sell it or rent it out". These are not realistic options in this economy. Houses take deep discounts and long periods of times to sell. Rent is another hassle that lets not even discuss.

kaansahbaz

Only 1 thing that your statement has truth is that location plays the largest factor right here

For 142 i bought a 2005 built condo (not a single family home) and its the greatest investment i made.
My case is a little different than OP's so lets not get in there since i bought my property 100% cash

But hypothetically if i were to having a mortgage (like OP is planning to have one)

30 year mortgage for 142,000 home with 20,000 down, monthly payment will be 700-710

I pay $250 for insirance for 12 momths, 388 HOA dues, and thats all the dues i have besides property tax which is 1225 for 6 months;

$20 insurance
$388 HOA
$200 propert yax
$700 mortgage

Total dues: less than rent i collect. Like I said it can pay it self off your work status is not the case here

I believe my area is not having house/condo/rent issues as much as east coast (my conclusion from what you said)
My next house neighbor sold his house in 1 week after he put his house for sale 975K. I guess house market is better than there

OP location is important! Thing you need to watch is how is the market doing! House prices are not going down anymore in CA.
Do your homework! Check rent prices, talk to insurance agent for your insurance quotes, 1st year you are paying property tax from las assesment that was done during last owner era. So make sure you can fork out your propert tax every year!

Thankfully my tenants has been great! Its just a matter of fact where you get your house! Aperantly a low income person cant come and rent my unit. As 1 bedroom 1500 is above average so i got lucky. No disrespect to anyone here, just my personal opinions npand they should not be taken as promises.

sillyboybmxer

I think you should take your time at looking casually for the next 6mo-1yr and see how life changes. Act as though you are making that mortgage payment and set it aside. Do you really have enough after 6 months and do you enjoy your changed lifestyle?

Whatever you do,...buying a condo is the dumbest "investment" ever.
take that how you will. Any new "condo" will be run down/hood that you won't be able to rent to anyone when the time comes for you to move out of it. It happens everywhere, new apartments/condos are always nice until one person rents out to an undesirable tenant/tenants, causing another family/tenant to move out because of the noise/constant traffic of people coming and going/ etc. Its a slippery slope when you cant control your immediate neighbors. Not saying if you own a house the neighbors cant sell to some undesirables, but when there is a building/complex of possible new tenants constantly changing, the once desirable new condo is now the place to avoid and you are stuck paying for a place in the "hood" that is impossible to rent. All these young kids think they can "own their own home" since a condo is "cheaper" than a home and the American Dream is soooo close with their approval to buy a 100k "home" and they always think it will be easy to make money on it or have someone else pay their note by renting it out, ....thats only the case, for a year or two. Sure, you may get lucky and have an entire building of school teachers and old people for the entire life of the loan and it may be easy to ditch before things turn for the worse, but I wouldn't take that gamble.

Tuan85

Thanks never really thought about this point. Im going to wait until the end of the year and buy a house. Any good websites for first time home-owners?

suprmonky73

I like to go o zillow. A lot of people don't like zillow because their price estimates arent accurate, but it gives you a really good idea of what is in the area and what you should be looking at.

Each listing has this section at the bottom of the page:


It will give you an idea of what the final mortgage will look like with x% of a downpayment, plus property tax etc. It also estimates PMI if you put down less than 20%. Then you can use this estimated number in your own personal budget to see if the mortgage payment makes sense or is too high. There are other home costs to consider as well, but this should be used to estimate and has been a good place to start for me at least.

Bama Dave

If you are serious about purchasing your first house at a young age something you should do before you sign the paperwork.
1. Do you have the appilances and yard equipment for the house. This is an additional cost that a lot of first buyer don't consider.
2. The first year of ownership will be the hardest. Uttilities and up keep on the house.
3. Always pay an seperate home inspection contractor that you hired to inspect the house you are going to purchase. The cost is worth the money down the road.
4. Once you sign all the mountains of paperwork it is your house to repair and fix.

DSCLegend

There's a lot of great advice here. Don't know if I missed this info, but are you thinking about conventional or FHA loan? Don't forget to add MIP, home owner's insurance, property taxes, and HOA fees. As well as all the utilities: electricity, water, gas, trash, (telephone, cable, internet.) Maintenance as well like yard work and/or pool cleaning. My suggestion is to have at LEAST 3 months, but preferably 6 months of payments saved up in case of emergencies (i.e. hospitalized, lose your job)

newyawkballa

My neighborhood in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY has Plenty of cheap housing under $200k....One of the cheapest towns within an hour LIRR train ride to Manhattan... I'm talking some houses newer then your S2000 with garage.

s.hasan546

My neighborhood in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY has Plenty of cheap housing under $200k....One of the cheapest towns within an hour LIRR train ride to Manhattan... I'm talking some houses newer then your S2000 with garage.
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My parents live in Melville, NY. Thats exactly 1 hour from Manhattan. Houses there are $500k+.

Yes you can live in areas with shittier school systems & worse areas like amityville, deer park; etc. But those areas also have tons of houses that rent for much cheaper than a mortgage. Even in Deer Park (father still owns a house over there), which has tons of foreclosures, rent is much much cheaper than buying.

rob-2

This

Jumping in late. OP take your extra cash and invest it. Owning property is not an investment.